A technical field of the invention relates to scalable content creation for 3D Interactive Experiences, and 3D Interactive Simulations including, but not limited to, video gaming and online shopping/viewing.
Computer 3D modeling techniques have been used to build 3D packaged goods for display in interactive, 3D simulations of store interiors. In particular, 3D modeling has been used to implement the end user experience of viewing a product, its store/shelf context and the experience of “picking up” the product to view and read product packaging text online.
In applications where 3D models of packaged goods were built for in-store display, two strategies have been used to build shelf (package goods) 3D model content.
The first strategy used manual creation of 3D models from photographs and product measurement information, using AutoDesk® 3DS Max®, Maya® or other general purpose modeling applications. While the workflow to systematically produce larger numbers of models may be planned and organized, the unit of work is still based on manual modeling of shapes and manual creation of texture maps.
A second strategy used general purpose photo-based 3D modeling applications. There exists a variety of commercially available software and approaches to solving the general problem of creating a 3D model from a physical object. An example of this software is “Strata Foto 3D” which “lets one use a standard digital camera to capture real-world objects as fully textured 3D models.” General purpose photo modeling of products (packaged goods) works well to produce small numbers of product models. The main limitation of this technique is that the 3D model created from multiple photographs requires significant manual labor to correct defects and to rescale geometry for usage in online 3D applications.
Limitations of existing solutions are based on the amount of manual (expert 3D artist) work required to process 3D models for use in computer applications. Because each model must be partly or completely created by hand (in a complex, general purpose 3D modeling application), any modeling workflow based on this process is not scalable.
A second problem observed with 3D models based on photo modeling systems is irregularity of the geometric mesh. An irregular mesh makes downstream resizing/processing of models harder, and locks the workflow into a cycle of future manual editing and manual adjustment of model content.
A disadvantage of prior art is reliance on downstream editing of models in the content production process. This is a problem because A) input data is continuously being updated with new images, and B) output specifications can shift due to new requirements/improvements in the online shopper experience application.
Reliance on manual editing locks content production into a cycle of continued hand editing. When larger changes are required, old output is discarded and the full cost of content creation must be born a second (or third or Nth) time.